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I have had a set of Nautilus 805's that I bought new about a year ago, my buddy got a set of 805S's and thought we would do a side by side comparsion of the two one day. We had everything hooked up to a Classe CA-201 amp, HK AVR520 pre-amp, Denon DVD-1920 dvd-player, and Rotel RCC-1055 CD changer all linked together with blue jean cables and monster Z2 BIwire speaker cable.
Bass Control:
Side by Side comparasion revealed the 805S had much better bass control and went alot lower than the Nautilus series with out much strain at all. The 805S packed a lot more mid bass punch than the older Nautilus series as well and sounded more controlled. Just by looking at the two mid bass drivers B&W definitely redesigned them as the 805S now has a moving dust cap thats mated to the kevlar cone where the older Nautilus series had a perment dust cap that was seperate from the kevlar cone and didnt move. To say the least I was very impressed how much bass controlled improved over the older Nautilus series.
Treble:
B&W also redesigned the tweeter over the older Nautilus line by moving the tweeter location up about a full inch. I was also told by my dealer that the S series tweeters are made out of a different material than the Nautilus line which allow it to extend its frequency response even higher. A quick listen with a few DVDA's and CD's revealed that the S series high-end was more dynamic, smoother sounding, and gave off a better 3D effect to the imaging over the Nautilus line. The best way I can describe it is, any high pitched musical instruments sounded so real and life like that it was almost like I had the symphony in my living room, instead of just 2 speakers. The Nautilus line almost sounds as good but you could tell on some of the women’s voices and high pitched musical instruments that the sound was definitely coming from speakers as the sound lost its power, smoothness, and dynamics that the S series had.
Things I noticed:
The new S series feels about a full 5-6lbs heaver than the older Nautilus speaker, maybe due to the fact of the bigger magnet on the midbass? The new grills are hard as heck to get off, which is kinda a pain.
Conclusion:
I think the S series is a good improvement over the Nautilus line, but for the money I still think the Nautilus line is a good buy as you can get used pairs in mint condition for around $1500-1700 while the new S series is about $2500 at your local dealer. It all depends on your needs. If you were going to run a set of S series as rear channels I don't think you would see much of a benefit but if you were to run the 805's as mains I would definitely spend the extra cash on the new S series. To conclude my little write up I called the dealer and have a set of 805S's coming mine way for the bedroom system which should be in Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. Anyways happy listing.
:T
Bass Control:
Side by Side comparasion revealed the 805S had much better bass control and went alot lower than the Nautilus series with out much strain at all. The 805S packed a lot more mid bass punch than the older Nautilus series as well and sounded more controlled. Just by looking at the two mid bass drivers B&W definitely redesigned them as the 805S now has a moving dust cap thats mated to the kevlar cone where the older Nautilus series had a perment dust cap that was seperate from the kevlar cone and didnt move. To say the least I was very impressed how much bass controlled improved over the older Nautilus series.
Treble:
B&W also redesigned the tweeter over the older Nautilus line by moving the tweeter location up about a full inch. I was also told by my dealer that the S series tweeters are made out of a different material than the Nautilus line which allow it to extend its frequency response even higher. A quick listen with a few DVDA's and CD's revealed that the S series high-end was more dynamic, smoother sounding, and gave off a better 3D effect to the imaging over the Nautilus line. The best way I can describe it is, any high pitched musical instruments sounded so real and life like that it was almost like I had the symphony in my living room, instead of just 2 speakers. The Nautilus line almost sounds as good but you could tell on some of the women’s voices and high pitched musical instruments that the sound was definitely coming from speakers as the sound lost its power, smoothness, and dynamics that the S series had.
Things I noticed:
The new S series feels about a full 5-6lbs heaver than the older Nautilus speaker, maybe due to the fact of the bigger magnet on the midbass? The new grills are hard as heck to get off, which is kinda a pain.
Conclusion:
I think the S series is a good improvement over the Nautilus line, but for the money I still think the Nautilus line is a good buy as you can get used pairs in mint condition for around $1500-1700 while the new S series is about $2500 at your local dealer. It all depends on your needs. If you were going to run a set of S series as rear channels I don't think you would see much of a benefit but if you were to run the 805's as mains I would definitely spend the extra cash on the new S series. To conclude my little write up I called the dealer and have a set of 805S's coming mine way for the bedroom system which should be in Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. Anyways happy listing.
:T
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